Comments on: How much will my cell phone bill be?

Question: How much will my cell phone bill be?

jacobw — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 10:20:20 -0800

Is there an online calculator to determine how much my cell phone bill will be?

I'm on Verizon Wireless, and I'm talking and txt-ing a lot more now that most of my friends are long distance.

Is there a way to determine, quickly and easily, how much my bill will be next month? Online calculator would be nice, but I can do the math if shown how the billing works.

Example: $39.99 plan gives me 400 minutes and 1000 IN minutes.
If I were to talk more than 1000 minutes IN, what happens to the 400? What if I go over 1400 minutes total?

Not to mention that some minutes are "Peak" and some aren't.

Any suggestions?

By: kcm

kcm — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 10:23:58 -0800

Why don't you call customer service and ask them, since they're really the only ones that can positively tell you their terms and conditions?

By: edgeways

edgeways — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 10:28:28 -0800

ditto kcm

By: pdb

pdb — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 10:33:26 -0800

You should definitely call customer service, but as a Verizon customer I can tell you this much:

1. The 400 and 1000 minutes are different buckets. They're not ever combined - which means you will be hit with per minute charges if you go over the 400, and again if you're over the 1000. So if you're talking a lot you'd want to be careful. (verizon has lots of plans with unlimited IN, which is well worth it if lots of your friends/family are Verizon customers

2. Peak minutes with Verizon are 6AM-9PM M-F, local to the time zone you are calling from. Any minutes used outside these hours do not count against either your IN or non IN bucket. (read: weekends are *always* free minutes)

But yeah, call Verizon if you want a more exact accounting - they can also use your billing history to suggest the best plan for your usage pattern.

By: about_time

about_time — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 10:55:27 -0800

This isn't exactly what you are looking for I think but perhaps useful. It's an extension to firefox that shows your current usage in the status bar.

http://verizon-minutes-used.blogspot.com/

By: mmdei

mmdei — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 11:48:14 -0800

Re-negotiate your contract. Verizon now offers unlimited IN calling. For me it was as simple as asking for the new plan in place of the $10/extra/month for IN. They even retroactively knocked two months off. $20 credit. Took a few minutes.

By: mmdei

mmdei — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 11:50:51 -0800

PDB: regarding #2, the peak time is based on your areacode/billing zip, not the location of the call. Which can come in quiet handy if you have a westcoast number and are spending..... some years on the east coast =)

Not so handy in reverse.

By: FlamingBore

FlamingBore — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 11:57:22 -0800

But, more importantly, call Verizon and get a better plan. I pay $39.99 a month for the 450 plus unlimited IN calls with the free Nights & Weekends deal.

By: jeversol

jeversol — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 12:02:09 -0800

BTW: There is an E in the word Text. *twitches at Verizon marketing*